On March 29, 1960, the New York Times ran an advertisement, “Heed Their Rising Voices,” for the Committee to Defend Martin Luther King and the Struggle for Freedom in the South. Civil rights veteran A. Philip Randolph chaired the organization, which was staff ed by a number of well-known black entertainers, including Harry Belafonte, Sydney Poitier, and Nat King Cole, and endorsed by ministers in many southern states. The ad praised activists in the South, trying to uphold the “right to live in human dignity” protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and decried the “unprecedented wave of terror” that met the movement in the streets of southern cities.

Becoming Alabama: Civil Rights Movement

Author

Matthew L. Downs (PhD, Alabama) is an adjunct professor of history at Birmingham-Southern College. His dissertation focused on the federal government's role in the economic development of the Tennessee Valley.